Conflict tourism: Kashmir hottest new destination for IndiansKashmir, India's hottest new travel destination, is also the site of its deadliest insurgencySRINAGAR (INDIA) - Standing on a fortified Kashmir street, an Indian tourist poses triumphantly for her husband's camera, clutching the national flag in each hand and flanked by two soldiers carrying rifles. India's hottest new travel destination is also the site of its deadliest insurgency, where regular skirmishes break out between separatist militants and Indian troops, half a million of whom are stationed in Kashmir. "The way tourism is being promoted by the government is telling Indians: go spend time there and make Kashmir yours." Sarmad Hafeez, the local government's tourism secretary, told AFP that the official budget to promote tourism had "quadrupled" in the past two years. "If Kashmir is a part of India," a tourist from West Bengal told AFP, "then we should ask why there are so many security forces everywhere."

Source: Bangkok Post September 23, 2022 05:12 UTC